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Hope for Film

What are you doing this weekend? If you had any friends that came to Tuesday night's HopeForFilm Screening at Goldcrest of Tristan Patterson's SxSW Audience Award winning film DRAGONSLAYER, I am sure that's what you'll now be going to see, because the word was "that good"! When I put on a screening, I also write a letter letting my list know why I care about the film. This is that letter for Dragonslayer.

How often does a distributor truly do a really impressive job making sure that people all over the globe can see an art film? How often does a true indie open globally? How often does a true indie play at film festivals all over the world? I am told that only once in the last ten years has a film played at Sundance, Cannes, Toronto, and New York Film Festivals other than MARTHA MARCEY MAY MARLENE (go ahead and guess what the other was).

We make films to have a dialogue with our audience & communities. Our viewers, and how we connect with them, is such a bit part of the equation, that we spend a TREMENDOUS amount of time discussing the business: how do we discover films? how do we aggregate audiences? how do we achieve a sustainable career? And so on and so on and so on.The answer always remains the question of "How do we make better films?". I am a big believer that all filmmakers need to know what they love (and how to strive to achieve it). I am also a believer that audiences benefit from the same knowledge. I know we don't discuss this enough. It's personal. It is difficult to articulate. But we must make the effort. It's worth it. We can build it better together. Thankfully Kevin Shah has stepped forward; someone always needs to get on the dance floor first!

This past Wednesday I screened Andrew Haigh's WEEKEND for my HopeForFilm/Goldcrest Screening Series. It is a truly romantic film. It may be a gay love story, but in it's tale of a one night stand that could become something more, Haigh's has tapped into a longing and hope that I never feel in any corporate filmmaking and is entirely universal. It makes me wonder if when creators are forced to think first about the market, if their work will be deprived of love and romance.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, or follower of mine on Twitter, I think you know that for me a Producer only deserves that credit when they truly commit to support the project from beginning to end. You also probably know how challenging I find the calling of producing these days, when we are required to do more and more, and are rewarded, at least financially, less and less.